Confessions Of A Late Bloomer: NIV

, by Unknown

Serenity Sunday: In Everything Give Thanks! (23rd February 2014)

A blessed Sunday morning to you!

Today I want to testify about the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Over the past two weeks, my family, I and our close friends and relatives were all praying for my sister (the only sibling I have left) to get well. She was diagnosed with Herpes Zoster aka Shingles two weeks ago and boy was it nasty! Not only was it difficult to treat, it also caused my sister’s body and immune system to really break down, thus giving birth to other complications. The hospital bill sky-rocketed and I’m telling you, if it weren’t for God’s awesome power, I don’t know how we’re able to make it out from there. But you know what? We’re able to pay the bill through God’s mighty provision and my sister is now at home and on her way to a speedy recovery. How did it all happen? God’s miracle – which brings me now to the topic of this post: “In everything, give thanks!”

It is so easy to thank the Lord when everything is going our way, right? It’s easy to be grateful when we’re blessed, when we’re healthy, when we’re doing great in our job, when we’ve reached our goals, when we’re successful, when everything’s fine. But can we still thank God when the going gets tough? Can we still say that God is good when suddenly our world is falling apart? This reminds me of Job and all the tests he went through and passed for the glory of God.

Job 2:9-10 (NIV)

His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!”

He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

Job is right. Are we only faithful and thankful to the Lord when we have a good life? How are we in the face of trials and sufferings? You know what I realized over the past couple of weeks? I realized that the situation brought me closer to God. I became more prayerful because of what happened to my sister. God also used the situation for our family to be more united and faithful to Him. I’m overseas and because of my sister’s condition, my mom called me almost everyday. I felt closer to home than ever before. Not only that, brothers and sisters in Christ extended their help like a whirlwind. God's grace is truly amazing and His awesome power is unquestionably unmatched! He showed us once more that in every day of our lives, there is something to be thankful for whether it’s a blessing or suffering. I give God my endless praise, worship and thanksgiving today and forever. Amen.

***

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

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, by Unknown

beckaroopresents

Serenity Sunday: New Year, New Beginning! (12th January 2014)

Hi everyone! Happy New Year!

It’s been a while since my last post. I have to admit, the holiday season has gotten into me and I guess I just didn’t want it to be over so soon that’s why I slacked on posting here. No? Alright! Yeah, I just got lazy as usual. But hey! Don’t tell me I’m the only one who got lazy after the holiday season. C’mon! I’m sure some of you also went through this same phase, but enough of this. It’s Sunday today and I want to share with you what’s running on my head…

** WARNING: THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG POST. **

New Year, new beginning! So what does that mean to me? Well, I probably haven’t told you this yet, but for the longest time, I’ve been struggling with this what-do-i-really-want-to-do-in-my-life dilemma. And it’s tough! Here’s the problem: there are a lot of things that I want to do and accomplish but I don’t know how I’d be able to do “all of it” with the time I have. Good thing, I learned a very important lesson last year which I would like to hopefully apply this year. I know this is a popular saying but it’s only when I heard it on TV that it stroke me: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

My biggest weaknesses are setting of priorities and time management. There are a lot of things that I thought I love equally and my mind is just always racing with ideas for each of these “things” that I love to do. However, I find it difficult to put all these ideas into action with the time I have and with my current level of skills. To give you a more vivid picture of what I’m going through, let me take you back to my childhood days.

Ever since I was a kid, I love drawing. I drew and drew endlessly when I was young. Whenever I drew something, I always had a story for it in my mind. It’s like I was creating a comic book with no texts because the story was just running in my head and I was too lazy to write the dialogues down as I drew the characters. I also thought, “What’s the point? Nobody’s gonna see and read it anyway?”

When I was 12, that’s the first time I started literally writing down my stories. I wrote them on an old notebook and passed it to my classmates for them to read – for free of course! That was fun and I thought that's what I could be when I grow up: either a writer or a comic book illustrator. I didn’t stop with that cool hobby of mine until I graduated high school.

Yeah, I took up BS Architecture in college but that's different. I never liked to draw houses and buildings when I was young, and you know what? Those are exactly what drawings are like in the archi-world. If not for God's grace, I wouldn't know how I'd be able to finish college, haha. Whew! It's probably why I decided to change path after graduation - another long story which I'm not gonna bore you with today.

So! A decade and two years later, I decided to pick up a pen and paper and started drawing again. That’s when I realized how much I’ve missed it and that my skills didn’t change. A good thing? Nope! Yeah, my skills didn’t change which also means they didn’t improve either. And before I stopped sketching/drawing years ago, I already knew that I still have a lot to learn and improve. And now that I’m back, it seems like I’m starting all over again.

The good news is: I found a platform where I can share my drawings and stories to the world. And that platform is no other than YouTube. I have created a channel last year for this hobby and it’s called “BeckarooPresents”. Beckaroo by the way is one of my nicknames. I actually have an ongoing story there right now, but just a heads-up, it’s in my native language: Filipino/Tagalog.

The thing is I have so many great plans for that channel and I know it will take so much of my time. Why? Well, I need to improve on my drawings and I also intend to do animations very soon. In order for me to do all of that, I need to practice more each day which means I might need to sacrifice other things that I love. And what are those other things? One of them is blogging. Oopps! RELAX. I’m not gonna leave this site and give up blogging completely but I’m thinking that I might lay low a little bit, because blogging is not just about writing. It requires a lot of work too. You know – taking photos of products, observing how a product works, jotting down your observations, writing your conclusions, post-processing photos, etc-etc. And while blogging is really fun, I realized just very recently that I love drawing and writing stories more than I love blogging.

Is that it? No. Aside from drawing and writing stories, I also love music. I started composing my own songs when I was in college (2^nd year). Since then, I fell in love with the idea of creating my own songs. The problem is, I was never confident with my voice and my songs that I kept all my compositions buried somewhere in my treasure room. After I graduated college, just like what I did with drawing/writing comic books, I also shelved my passion in writing songs. It’s only when I started being active on YouTube that I decided to give it a try again. And because my husband is a really good writer, we decided that he’d be the one in-charge of the lyrics while I’m the one responsible for the tune. Our first song is called “There’s Never You And Me” and I used it as the closing song for each of the episodes of my first Love Story on YouTube. Here’s the complete song, by the way.

Unlike with drawing/writing stories, I have given up on the thought that I’d go far with song-writing, so I’d probably just do it whenever I have a spare time and whenever I need a specific song for my stories. But you know what, last year I thought differently. I was struggling so bad about setting my priorities, because I couldn’t decide which among the things I can do (and love to do) would be okay for me to either give up or lay low on. And that’s when the saying, “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” really had a big impact in my life.

It made me realize that being able to do all those stuffs doesn’t always mean I have to do all of them. I need to decide which one I should focus on. Even though it doesn’t necessarily mean I have to give up the other things I like, it also doesn’t mean that I should give each of them equal time and attention. Yeah, maybe others can do it smoothly, but I have to accept that I obviously can't. It is only in choosing what I really want to do in life that I could give my 100% time and effort to it and could actually get better in it.

So, for this year, I am looking forward to leveling up my drawing skills and writing more stories. It may sound easy but I'm telling you, it's really not, haha. By the way, I’m sorry for the long post. *shy grin*

How about you? What are you looking forward to this year? Happy New Year again and may we all have a blessed Sunday ahead!

***

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."

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, by Unknown

2013

Serenity Sunday: My Weekend Morning Routine! (29th December 2013)

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, by Unknown

bible verse

Serenity Sunday: Don’t Judge. (15th December 2013)

Good morning everyone!

As of typing this, I’m still having my breakfast and pondering on God’s message for me today. Then I thought, “why not share this wonderful message with you all today?” Alrightie! I’m currently in the book of Romans (chapter 2 to be exact) and it’s about God’s righteous judgment. The first verse in the chapter which I shared on my Instagram and other social media sites says, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” This is very crucial. It is of grave importance that we take heed of the message of this verse. It is an authoritative reminder that we have no right (“NO RIGHT”) to judge others.

As I sit here and stare at the view outside my window, my mind travels back in time. I go back to those memories where I carelessly passed judgment on other people without realizing that (1) I’m not perfect and (2) I might do all those things too. And sure enough, a few years later, I did “those” things too, (which I’m not gonna elaborate here in full details)

I remember judging others because of the decisions and actions they made only to find myself doing those same things a few years later. I kept judging others when I didn’t have the right on the first place and I only stopped when I found myself in the same situations they were into, repeating what they did (only in my own version). Did you see the point? My point is, sometimes, when we can’t seem to get God’s message and we repeatedly make the same mistakes, He lets us go through something so painful, something we would not forget, just so we’d understand what He’s trying to teach us. And sometimes, it is so simple. In this case, He simply wanted me to learn this: don’t judge others. That’s just what He’s been trying to teach me all those years and had I not fallen in the same pits as those people I was judging, I wouldn’t have learned that I don’t have the right to condemn other people of their sins. If God who is blameless and righteous has not condemned me for all my sins but rather accepted me with arms opened wide when I asked for forgiveness, who am I to not do the same to others who seek of my forgiveness and simply ask that I don’t judge them for what they did?

Today, let’s evaluate ourselves. How many times have we judged others? It’s not yet too late to change. Let us come to God and ask for His forgiveness for all the times we’ve condemned others for what we think are their wrongdoings. And let’s ask Him to mold our hearts into what He’s designed it for: TO LOVE unconditionally. Instead of passing judgment on others, let’s spread love and forgiveness, and together we can build a better world to live in.

A blessed Sunday everyone!

***

Romans 8:1-2 (NIV)

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

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, by Unknown

decision

Serenity Sunday: Decision Dilemma (24th November 2013)

When one of what you specifically prayed for has been answered, what do you do? But wait! That's not the end of it. Here's the twist: before you could even claim your prize, another one of your specific prayers has been granted, which now leaves you on the edge of deciding which of the two you’re going to choose? Hmmm...

Good morning, everyone! How is your Sunday so far? Mine is filled with answered prayers. I can’t thank God enough for hearing my prayers and granting my heart’s requests. I just can’t share with you yet what these answered prayers are but you’d all know it at the right time. :)

Going back to my question above, if you specifically requested for two different things (because in your heart, you’re okay with either of them) and you were offered both, which would you choose? And what if you like these two things equally but you really have to pick one, which would that be?

Let’s say, it is your passion to sing and dance and one day you found an online singing competition. Wow! So without thinking twice, you auditioned and wished so hard to pass. While waiting for the results, your friends told you about a dance contest which is just around the corner and because you also love to dance, you went ahead and auditioned thinking that either of the two will be okay since they’re both your passion. So everything seems okay until you found out that you passed the audition for the online singing competition and before you could even confirm your participation for the next round, you also learned that you made it in the dance contest. Huwwaaaaattttt?!?!?!!!

Seriously guys, what would you do? Tell me, which one would you choose? And please remember that in the example given above, you love singing and dancing equally. I hope to hear from you, guys. I’d really love to hear what you all have to say about this. Thanks and have a blessed Sunday ahead!

***

Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

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Pages

SERENITY SUNDAY: IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO TRY (11-JUNE-2017)

Serenity Sunday: In Everything Give Thanks! (23rd February 2014)

Serenity Sunday: New Year, New Beginning! (12th January 2014)

Serenity Sunday: My Weekend Morning Routine! (29th December 2013)

Serenity Sunday: Don’t Judge. (15th December 2013)

Serenity Sunday: Decision Dilemma (24th November 2013)

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SERENITY SUNDAY: IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO TRY (11-JUNE-2017)

Serenity Sunday: In Everything Give Thanks! (23rd February 2014)

Serenity Sunday: New Year, New Beginning! (12th January 2014)

Serenity Sunday: My Weekend Morning Routine! (29th December 2013)

Serenity Sunday: Don’t Judge. (15th December 2013)

Serenity Sunday: Decision Dilemma (24th November 2013)

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